Glenda Jackson

British screen and stage actress, a consummate professional, whose skills covered a multitude of different roles from those of cold, sex-starved women to the neurotic, flawed woman, to that of casual nudity. One of the few performers to achieve the American Triple Crown of Acting, Jackson won two Best Actress Academy Awards (Women in Love, 1969; A Touch of Class, 1973), three Outstanding Lead or Best Actress Emmys (Elizabeth R, twice in 1971; Elizabeth Is Missing, 2020) and a Tony (Best Leading Actress for 2018 play Three Tall Women). Jackson also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Sunday Bloody Sunday, 1971). She was appointed CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978.

Jackson was the eldest of four daughters of a bricklayer and a barmaid, raised in the working class. At 16, she dropped out of school to become a drugstore clerk. Getting into amateur dramatics, she smoothed out her northern accent and won a state scholarship to drama school. In January 1957, Jackson made her professional stage debut in Ted Willis's Doctor in the House at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing. Going on to become a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she worked steadily from 1957 in theatre and from 1963 in films. After the release of Women in Love in November 1969, she moved into international celebrity.

Deeply involved in politics, Jackson worked actively with the Labour Party from 1981; she phased out of acting into the role of Member of Parliament in May 1992. A committed feminist and socialist, Jackson put her all into whatever she tackled. Her ex-husband once said of her, "If Glenda went into crime, she'd become Jack the Ripper; if she went into politics, she'd become prime minister." Jackson herself had no such ambitions, but did want to make a mark. Appalled at the poverty and crime that she saw in her beloved country, she aimed to rectify the plight that she saw as coming from the Thatcher regime.